Personal project · Work in progress
I have a deep affection for Tolyatti — a city I have never visited, yet whose history, architecture and visual environment have fascinated me for a long time. Distance allowed me to look at the city through a designer's eyes: from a distance appropriate to its scale. The city is layered and full of striking contrasts: natural and industrial landscapes, three very different districts, Soviet monumentalism, Brutalist architecture, prefabricated housing and industrial history.
I spent a long time exploring the city's history in depth: reading specialist literature, watching documentaries, studying archival material and personal blogs by photographers and artists, and consulting with the local history museum. The postcards were never the goal of this exploration; they emerged from it almost on their own, as my fascination with the city gradually turned into visual ideas.
As the series developed, it became important to me to show just how different — and therefore surprising — one and the same city can be.
The city map became a recurring element throughout the series. I worked with GIS software and geodata and contacted cartographic data providers directly.
Concept
Over time, the series developed into several visual directions. Each grew out of a different impression of the city and uses the map of Tolyatti in its own way.
“Many Faces of Tolyatti” is a set of three postcards about the city's three main districts. They were developed at different times and for different purposes, which gave each of them a noticeably different architectural and urban character. I wanted to push this contrast almost to the point of paradox: the three postcards look as if they depict three different cities, even though all of them are Tolyatti.
“Living Tolyatti” turns toward the city's history. Here I wanted to combine human warmth with the dignity and restraint of an old document — something like a yellowed newspaper or an archival record preserving a chronicle of days gone by. It is about respect for the city's origins, historical memory, and the contrast between a simple visual solution and the complexity of the subject behind it.
“Bright Tolyatti” is the sunniest and most life-affirming part of the series. It draws on the beaches, the Volga, the “Joy of Labour” monument-panel, saturated colours and a sense of energy. It is another view of the city's many layers, this time through joy, summer, lightness and inspiration.
Status
Work in progress. The series is still in development and has not yet been printed. In the future, I would like to find the right format for bringing it into production.
